J\ • Home • id • Mei?£.RJ3. ^ 




A $3,500 COTTAGE. 

[From Fuller & Wheeler's "Artistic Homes."] 



I 



MENANDS: 



THE GARDEN SUBURB 



OF 



ALBANY AND TROY. 



"Indeed, what more can be desired? A Utile garden to walk, and immensity to reflect 
upon. At his feet something to cultivate and gather; above his head something to study and 
meditate upon; a few flowers on the earth, and all the stars in the %V.y ."—Victor Hugo. 



BY m Pv' PHELPS, 

Author of "Players of a Century," and "The Albany Hand-Book. 




ALBANY, N. Y. : 

Published by Brandow, Barton & Co. 
1886. 



D 



COPYRIGHT BY 

H. P. PHELPS, 

1886. 



^^^ 



% 

A HOME OF YOUR OWN. 



nPHE concert-room was crowded, for the gifted prima-donna was 
■*- in the full tide of her great popularity. No matter who it was : 
it might have been Titiens, with a method as grand as the ocean of 
which she sang; or it might have been Jenny Lind, with a voice 
more like that of the Seraphim who stand before the Throne than 
anything we shall hear again on earth ; it might have been Parepa, 
combining in her superb vocalism the excellencies for which all 
other singers have been praised ; it might have been Patti, the per- 
fection and the despair of operatic artists ; or it might have been 
Nilsson, or Nevada, or our own Albani. 

You were there and you remember when she sang that grand aria 
from " Norma," how we shouted and waved our handkerchiefs ; and 
when she gave the Jewel Song from "Faust," how we went wild with 
delight, and showered upon her bouquets and adulation. 

And you remember, too, when at last, in response to a thunder- 
ing encore, she came to the footlights, and once more Ufting up her 
wonderful voice, discarding entirely the language and methods of 
grand opera, and of foreign music, she sang : 

"'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, 
Be it ever so humble, there 's no place like home." 

There was no shouting then. The moment of tumult had gone 
by. The homage which expressed itself in noise had ceased. Even 
the flowers we laid at her feet could not say all we felt, and then and 
there, amid silence broken only by the old familiar strain, we ren- 
dered, one and all, the tribute of our tears. The triumph was com- 
plete ; but it was not her's alone. The years go by ; her name may 
have passed from memory, and we may question which of the great 
artists it was that so moved us, but 

"Though we may forget the singer, 
We do not forget the song." 



4 A Home at Menands : 

There are airs as sweet as the old Sicilian melody which John 
Howard Payne, strolling one morning through a town in Southern 
Italy, first heard from the lips of a peasant girl, and, asking her to 
repeat it, jotted down the notes as near as his limited knowledge of 
music would admit. There are verses quite as flowing as the words 
to which the tune was afterwards wedded and that are alone afloat 
on the sea of forgetfulness which has swept over the great London 
success of the season of 1823 ^'^^ washed into oblivion the opera of 
" Clara ; the Maid of Milan." But that one refrain has been sung 
the same hour by the humblest peasantry in Europe, and in her 
stateliest palaces. Religion has pressed, in paraphrase, both words 
and music into her solemn service. It is the sweetest lullaby the 
mother ever sings. Children learn it next to 

" Now I lay me down to take my sleep." 

It is the national anthem in the Woman's Kingdom. 

And all this simply because the words and music happily com- 
bine to express a sentiment so tender, so true and so universal as to 
confer upon the little song the gift of immortality. 

* 

* * 

The home instinct is strong in most men and in all women. It 
is not confined to human beings. Cats have it; birds come hun- 
dreds of miles to find their last year's nests ; the shad spawned in 
the Hudson never makes the mistake of going up the Connecticut to 
rear her family ; the horse, in the hour of peril, will not be driven 
from its stall, even by the terrors of a conflagration. 

" There are many roosts for a man," some one very prettily has 
said, " but only one nest." 

A home means stability. The ideal home means ownership, and 
taxes, of course, and jury-duty and such like privileges. A rented 
house may be a home, but at the best it is temporary, and must 
always be so regarded. A home means associations and memories, 
some sad, some glad, many tender, and all dear. 

But associations will not cling or gather in any shape to any 
extent when what is your hearth-stone this year may be John Smith's- 
grocery next May, and the room in which your darling died two 
years ago is this moment a feeding place for a score of half-civilized 
boarders. 

True, thousands are happy in homes which are liable to be 



The Garden Suburb of Albany and Troy. 5 

shifted every twelve-month, else the world would be fuller of misery 
than it is at present ; but most persons with anything like " pros- 
pects " look forward longingly to a home of their very own. 

But a home in the city is not, to people of moderate incomes, so 
easy of accomplishment. Few of us want to live up an alley, or on a 
back street, even temporarily ; still less desirable is it to locate there 
as house-owners. 

But lots on Quality Row, or near Washington Park, cost round 
sums of money, to say nothing of the expensive houses necessary to 
correspond with the neighborhood. Then, taxes are high — ^2.06 
on every hundred dollars in Albany this year, and that on a full 
valuation — with assessments for re-paving and for street drains 
probable. These are what make a home seem impossible to persons 
having an income of not more than from ^1,200 to ^2,000 a year. 
And how many such there are ! And what a blessing it would be 
could some way be devised whereby a comfortable home might for 

them be made a possibility ! 

* 
* * 

But why not a home in the suburbs ? 

That, after all, is admitted to be the perfection of desirable cir- 
cumstances for those who cannot afford to have both a town and 
country residence, for it combines the social advantages of the one 
with the natural blessings of the other. It is this idea that has built 
up around Boston her famous necklace of villages. It is this that 
has made the red sands of New Jersey and the barren wastes of 
Long Island to blossom hke the rose, with the surplus population 
of the Metropolis. Even Philadelphia, preeminently the city of 
homes, has suburbs made particularly attractive by the far-sighted- 
ness of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which offers many inducements to 
become dwellers on its line. 

Love in a cottage, or life in a cottage, no longer means existence 
in four bare walls where the wealth of roses outside the door ill com- 
pensates for the poverty of accommodations within. The cottage 
home of to-day may be a model of taste and convenience. Even in 
the suburbs all "modern improvements" are possible — well and 
cistern water, hot and cold, all over the house ; bath-room, water- 
closet ; a furnace heating all the rooms — everything except the 
high-priced and extravagant gas, can be had the same as in the city. 
Add to these a garden, a lawn, flower-beds, trees, pure air, bright 



6 A Home at Menands : 

sunshine, and plenty of elbow room ; all at a less annual outgo for 
interest, taxes, etc., than is paid for rent in the city ; and what 
a balance of personal comfort there is to be computed in favor of 
the suburbs ! 

It must be confessed, however, that in such suburbs Albany is as 
yet strangely deficient — strange because all about her are building 
sites that abound with many natural advantages — not so strange 
when their lack of accessibility is considered. 

The first re^isite of a suburb, otherwise desirable, is means of 
access that shall be cheap, quick and frequent. 

The suburban resident whose business calls him daily to the city 
must have sure and convenient methods of conveyance, else the 
daily journey to and fro becomes a weariness of the flesh. 

The advantage of a private conveyance is that it at once affords a 
thousand places to choose from, for it does not then matter in which 
direction you live, or whether near the cars or away from them, you 
are independent ; but such conveyance is not only expensive to get, 
and expensive to maintain; it is many times unsatisfactory and 
always more or less of a bother. It is very fine, to be sure, in 
pleasant weather and when one feels like it, to harness the horse 
and bowl over a good road in the bright sunshine to and from your 
home ; but it is not so agreeable when it must be done every day, in 
dust, through mud, rain or shine, snow or blow ; and always there is 
the horse to be cared for at both ends of the route. 

Stages and horse-cars are some better, many times, but they are 
often crowded, and always slow ; and for genuine comfort and con- 
venience there is nothing to equal the steam cars. They start on 
time ; they get there without exhausting your patience with the road, 
or your pity for dumb animals ; you have a comfortable seat ; you are 
not jammed against a washerwoman, or run over by a coal heaver, or 
suffocated with foul breath, or choked with tobacco smoke. The 
horse-car is a necessary of city life ; but it is also a necessary evil, and 
the suburban resident will dispense with it if possible. 

When we come to examine the time-tables for the hundred trains 
which, on half a dozen roads, leave Albany in as many directions 
daily, we are disappointed to find that with a single exception, there 
is very little accommodation of this kind for those who would reach 
the city early in the morning, and leave it late at night, and have 
opportunity to go to and fro frequently, as occasion may require, 
during the day. 



The Garde?i Suburb of Albany and Troy. 7 

This happy exception is the well-managed and popular " Belt 
Line," as it is called, between Albany and Troy, formed by an 
arrangement between the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company's 
and the Central-Hudson River railroads, by which cars leave the 
Union depot every hour from 7 a. m. to 11 p. m., making a continu- 
ous circuit, one train in each direction every sixty minutes. 

* 
* * 

Upon this Belt Line, three miles and a half north from Albany, 
on the west side of the river, in the town of Watervliet, is Menands. 

The name, intimately and widely associated with flowers and 
their cultivation, suggests a garden rather than a village, and such it 
is. And so it appears to the stranger who, in nine minutes after 
leaving Albany, alights at the pretty station over which the railroad 
agent, Mr. Augustus B. Lathrop, presides with courtesy and atten- 
tion. If it is in the summer time, luxurious vines are seen creeping 
up the sides of the building, while near by are beds of foliage plants 
and choice flowers selected from the Menand gardens, which lie 
directly back of the station. Through these and the conservatories 
the visitor walks, with many exclamations of wonder and delight, for 
here is gathered the largest, rarest and most valuable collection of 
cactuses ever brought together in America. Many hundred varieties 
have been exhibited here at once, and their fame has gone forth 
throughout the land. They are the particular fancy of the proprietor, 
Louis Menand, who with his sons, Louis Jr. and Felix, conduct a 
large floral business here, and at the Rural cemetery, with a branch 
on State street, Albany. 

In front of the station stands the stately Tweddle mansion, in the 
midst of orderly and well-kept grounds. Across the road is the 
residence of Mr. J. W. Tillinghast, President of the Merchants' 
National Bank of Albany. A little to the north, and within five 
minutes walk, are the State Fair grounds and buildings. Crossing the 
track at right angles, the Menand road leads from the Troy turnpike 
up the hill westward to Loudonville, only a mile or so away. On this 
road, and near by, are handsome villas and pretty cottages which go 
to make up " Menands," all well kept, well shaded and situated in 
ample and well arranged grounds. Among those living here are 
Messrs. John D. Capron, president of the Albany Board of Trade and 
of the Home Bank ; Douglas L. and Walter G. White, lumber dealers ; 
Isaac A. Chapman, Jeremiah Waterman and sons, Joseph A. Lansing 



8 A Home at Mejiands : 

of the firm of Wilson, Lansing & Co., all prominent Albany mer- 
chants of high commercial and social standing ; Thomas L. Goodwin 
and his son Albert C. Goodwin, engraver and lithographer ; William 
J. Dickson, a well known grocer ; Charles H. Peck, state botanist ; Mr. 
Archibald, of Troy ; Mrs. Woolverton ; Mr. Andrew W. Woolverton 
of the firm of Austin & Woolverton, insurance agents ; Mr. George 
H. Ball, of Bradstreet's commercial agency ; Mr. Joseph R. Harper, 
salesman for Fearey & Co. ; Mr. H. P. Phelps of the Albany Times ; 
Messrs. Charles B. Tillinghast, Albert H. Sliter, James Maxwell, James 
Gray, Jeremiah Lansing and Mrs. Lyon. Mr. C. W. Little, the law 
book publisher, and Mr. Dean Sage have handsome residences and 
spacious grounds further west. 

Fruit and shade trees, vines and gardens are everywhere. Not 
a poor or unsightly house is to be seen. Every thing, without osten- 
tation or vulgar display, indicates thrift, comfort, peace and happiness. 

Should the stranger make inquiries he would be told that there 
are never any houses to rent here ; that almost without exception 
each resident owns his own home, is delighted with it, and would not 
be hired to live elsewhere, summer or winter. 

Should the stranger extend his researches, he would be charmed 
with the pleasant walks and lovely views that are to be enjoyed close 
at hand. By ascending a not very steep and not very long hill, the 
valley of the upper Hudson presents at one glance a scene of natural 
beauty and active industry. At the north lies the busy city of Troy 
with its cloud of smoke by day, and pillar of fire by night, indicating 
the presence of enormous iron works, soon to be added to by the 
immense establishment on Breaker island, near enough to interest but 
not near enough to annoy. Southward, sitting upon her four sloping 
hills the Capital city, crowned with the grandest and noblest of legis- 
lative buildings, shows her domes and spires plainly against the sky ; 
while still further southward rolls silently towards the sea, the Hudson 
river, its bosom dotted here and there with swift sailing steamers, or 
slowly moving tows ; its banks luxuriant with the products of the soil. 

The walks about Menands are delightful, and one does not 
become worn out in reaching them. If you are of pensive mood 
a stroll of less tlian a mile northward leads to the Rural cemetery, 
widely noted for its natural and acquired lovhness. It can also be 
reached by the road westward, and passing through the southern en- 
trance. This approach has the advantage of bringing one directly 



The Garden Subtwb of Albany and Troy. g 

upon the most sightly section of the cemetery and the spot most in- 
quired for, as upon it stands Palmer's grc.t work of art, "The An- 
gel at the Sepulchre," admitted to be one of the finest pieces of 
out-doors statuary in America. 

From the southern entrance of the cemetery the Van Rensselaer 
boulevard stretches southward to Albany, affording a drive or walk 
along the ridge, from which the views are superb. It is on this 
avenue that " Fritz Villa " the ^300,000 home of Joseph K. Emmet, 
the actor, is situated. 

Another pleasant walk is across the meadows to Island park, 
through fields of melons, squashes, corn, etc., which grow luxuriantly 
on the soil enriched each year by the overflow of the Hudson, and 
worth ^1,000 an acre for market gardening. From the bridge 
across an- arm of the Hudson, turn and look through the trees 
towards Albany and admire, as you must, the view of the city and 
the intervening fields, with the capitol looming up like a mountain 
in the back-gr©und. The park itself, busy and noisy in race week, 
is usually quiet and peaceful. It is well cared for, and a pretty stretch 
of turf, over which it is a pleasure to walk, and especially delight- 
ful is the path, under the giant trees, leading to the bank of the 
main channel of the river. 

Should a longer walk be desired, the ramble can be extended to 
Pleasure island, a notable resort in the summer, from which the 
music of a band, " by distance mellowed," floats dreamily in the air 
each afternoon and evening. 

Just south of Menands, on the Van Rensselaer estate and ad- 
joining the Durant property, is a grove on high ground, where the 
trees are not thick enough to prevent the grass from growing fresh 
and green, presenting the appearance of a fine old English park, 
while the views are similar to those just mentioned. 

Near by is the Home for Aged Men, a quiet retreat for those who 
are 

Only waiting till the shadows 

Are a little longer grown, 
Only waiting till the glimmer 

Of the day's last beam is gone. 

The impression that one carries away from Menands is this : 
Here is a place quiet enough for a home, with beautiful and health- 
ful surroundings — yet so near to the busy world that one feels he is of 
it, and yet not in it. Within sight, or almost within sight, are two 



lo A Home at Menands : 

great cities, two railroads, the much traveled Troy road, a line of 
horse cars, the steamboats of the Hudson and the trafific of the 
Erie and Champlain canals. Life, activity, business, are close at 
hand, forbidding all feeling of loneliness, and yet the retirement is as 
perfect as in a country hamlet " twelve miles from a lemon," or forty 
miles from any where. 

* 

Why, then, it may naturally be asked, with all these advantages, 
has not Menands grown more rapidly? 

The answer is not hard to find. The owners do not care to have 
it grow. They are satisfied as it is, and building lots have not often 
been for sale. 

Recently a notable exception has been made. Part of the Dur- 
ant estate lying within four minutes walk south of the station has 
been laid out with a view to building. This property extends from 
the Troy road, where it borders on the grounds of the Old Men's 
Home, westward, nearly to the Van Rensselaer boulevard. In the 
midst of a beautiful grove, in about the centre of the property is 
situated " Brookside," the family residence. It takes its name from 
a little streamlet that 

— chatters, chatters as it flows 
To join the brimming river, 

tumbling down a wild and romantic ravine only a few rods west of 
the house, then turning southward through a pasture and across the 
Troy road, runs among the meadows to the Hudson. 

It was the idea of the late Mrs. Durant, who resided in this 
lovely spot, that it would be a pleasant thing to see growing up near 
her a neighborhood of congenial people ; and with this end in view 
she caused a map to be made of that part of the property east of 
the grove to the Troy road, (see page ii) and the land to be laid out 
in villa lots of half an acre or more, each. Through the centre, or 
near the centre of this tract runs " Brookside avenue," the private 
road, which bordered with trees, extends from the gate and little 
lodge at the Troy road, back to the residence in the grove. This is 
70 feet wide, including sidewalks outside the trees, and forms a no- 
ble approach to the lots, as they all front on this avenue, extending 
back from 135 to 260 feet on either side. Their width is from 65 
to 75 feet. They are situated on both sides of the D. & H. railroad 
track, and could not be better suitfed for building than they are. 



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12 A Home at Menands : 

Four or five of these lots had been sold, and negotiations were 
going on for others, when suddenly, without a moment's warning the 
owner died, leaving the estate in such condition that until now, no 
titles could be given, and of course, all sales stopped. Arrange- 
ments have recently been made by which the lots will now be dis- 
posed of to desirable purchasers.* 

It is the intention of the heirs to carry out their mother's ideas 
in regard to the little neighborhood as far as possible ; and the lots 
will be sold subject to such simple restriction, as will serve that end. 
Three tasteful cottages have already been built and occupied, and it 

is likely a number more will be erected the coming summer. 

* 

The anxious seeker for a home, after investigating thus far, will 
not as he goes back to the city, feel like settling down to his present 
half-life without an earnest inquiry as to the possibility of something 
better for himself and his family. He will find on reflection, that the 
savings which he is so carefully putting away in the bank, are bring- 
ing him very little return — possibly 3J per cent ; that is, on a thou- 
sand, just $35 a year, with the prospect that it will be still less in 
the future, as the banks find paying investments grow scarcer and 
scarcer. Supposing he has saved ^4,000, the interest amounts to 
^140 a year. He is paying from I250 to ^300 for a very ordinary 
rent subject to more annoyances than he and his wife can count. It 
finally flashes upon him that with this ^4,000 or even $3,000 he can, 
perhaps, own a cottage and garden of his own. 

That thought is a revelation. What is the paltry $140 a year com- 
pared with the enlargement of life that comes from the possession of 
a real home with all the comforts that have only here been hinted at? 
A home for which landlords and the first of May have no terrors ; a 
home which it will be a constant delight to improve and beautify ; a 
home which, come what may, is yours in sickness or health, a shelter, 
a refuge and castle ; a home for which your true wife will bless you 
all her days, and your children will remember, as you remember the 
spot where you were born. 

" But, suppose anything happens, and all my money is invested in 
a house and lot, what then? Suppose I lose my income for any 
cause ; suppose the bread-winner of the family is disabled, or taken 

♦Further particulars in relation to these lots can be had of Andrew W. Woolverton, 40 State 
street, or Weir & Chism, 74 State street, Albany. 



The Garden Suburb of Albany and Troy. 



13 




Cottage Costing $3,500 — From "Artistic Homes.' 

away by death?" — Well, the money has not been thrown away. If 
the house is economically and honestly built at prevailing low prices, 
there will always be one hundred cents to show for every dollar in- 
vested, at least ; and there is every prospect that values in this lo- 
cality will largely increase in the near future. Situated betweea two 
great and growing cities, as near to one, practically, as to the other, 
with the constant and increasing demand in both for homes like 
these, such property certainly cannot depreciate ; while a house 
not sold, could be rented a hundred times a year, at Menands, at lo 
per cent, on its cost. The investment is safer, therefore, than any 
bank, and pays better and is easily convertible. 

But suppose the home-seeker doesn't have the ^4,000 or the 
^3,000? That is unfortunate, of course; but if he has a tolerably 
certain income which warrants his paying ^300 rent in the city, and 
has a thousand or more dollars ahead, the home is still possible ; for 
with a cash payment for a lot it is comparatively easy to get the 
house built, giving a mortgage therefor and paying it as fast as possi- 
ble. The interest at 5 or 6 per cent., and the insurance and taxes 

*This design and those on the cover o< this pamphlet, are used by kind permission of Fuller 
& Wheeler, architects, Albany, N. Y. ; also publishers of " Artistic Homes," from which the 
designs are taken. 



14 A Home at Menands : 

(country rates) would not amount to as much as is paid out for 
rent ; and the inducement thus created to save money, to resist the 
temptations to spend it foohshly, is worth considerable. 

It is possible, for ^3,000 to build and furnish neatly a cottage of 
seven or eight rooms, heat them all with an improved heater, put in 
hot and cold water, bath-room, water closet, etc., a bay-window, a 
cellar under the entire house ; in short, make a home good enough 
for anybody to live in, If the plumbing and heater are dispensed 

with, it can be done for ^300 or ^400 less. 

* 
* * 

Once established at Menands, the expense of living is no greater 
than in the city. 

Car fare, by the very liberal arrangements of the Delaware & 
Hudson Canal Company, is afforded at only six cents to or from 
Albany, where ten tickets are bought at a time ; to and from Troy, in 
the same way, seven cents. The Albany and West Troy horse cars 
are also available, and are convenient when one happens to miss a 
train and does not wish to wait an hour for the next one. The time 
from the foot of State street, Albany, to Brookside avenue, Menands, 
by horse cars is 35 minutes .; fare 8 cents. 

Marketing is done at the door. So good a grocer as W. H. 
Coughtry (corner Eagle and Hamilton streets, Albany), sends a 
team once a week to take orders which are promptly filled the next 
day. Meat is brought to the door three times, and fish, etc., once or 
twice a week. Good and pure milk can be had of the neighbors. 
Coal is delivered from Albany or West Troy at the same price asked 
in either place. Ice can also be had, but with cool well water and 
good cellars, it is not the necessary that it is in the city. 

The mail is delivered twice a day by the Albany carriers. Tele- 
phone connection can be had with Troy or Albany. 

Water can be had for the digging, at from ten to fifteen feet be- 
low the surface, and running water could, at no great expense, be in- 
troduced in all the houses on the Durant estate, from a reservoir on 
the hill. Meantime, the system of Philadelphia gutters in the roof, 
which convey the rain water to a tank in the attic, the overflow going 
to a cistern in the cellar, combined with the sub-surface irrigation 
method of disposing of the sewage, answers all purposes. 

The objection of servant girls to living in the country does not 
apply, for there are enough of them already, not to find it lonesome. 



The Garden Suburb of Albany and Troy. 15 

while the conveniences for going to church, and transportation for 
their friends are just as open to them as to anybody. 

A good common school is taught only a little way from the sta- 
tion ; but many prefer to send their children to the city, and under 
the careful eyes of the conductors they ride too and fro in perfect 
safety, and at small expense. 

Religious privileges at Menands include an active and flourishing 
mission at the school house, in which Messrs. Dickson, Sliter, Water- 
man, and others, are deeply interested. Connected with it are a Sun- 
day school, regular prayer-meeting, Chautauqua Literary Circle, etc., 
with preaching quite frequently. (Steps are being taken to convert 
the mission into a church, which will no doubt be done at an early 
day.) There is also preaching by the city pastors about every other 
Sunday, at the Old Men's Home, to which the neighbors are always 
welcome. The trains run on Sunday morning on purpose to accom- 
modate church-goers, and the horse cars run at frequent intervals all 
day Sunday and in the evening. 

Of course, objections can be raised to any place on earth, the 
Garden of Eden not excepted. We all remember the man who 
complained of a place, that he couldn't sleep in it, because of the 
noise of the nightingales ; and for such troubles there is no cure, 
and for such complainers no happiness. 

" Yes ; it is all very well in summer, no doubt ; but in winter — .'' 
How many will say this, and think all they say and a great deal more. 
No place in this climate is as pleasant in the winter as it is in the 
spring, summer and autumn, but fortunately this arrangement is as 
three to one. The difference, however, between the city and the sub- 
urb in the matter of comfort in the winter, is greatly in the imagina- 
tion. A warm house is needed in both places ; and it can be had. 
Plenty of coal is needed in both places ; and it costs no more in the 
one than in the other. Roads are quickly broken in both places, 
and while the snow is not so thoroughly removed in the suburb as in 
the city, neither is the sidewalk of earth such a snare and a pitfall as are 
flags and bricks. How can any one, compelled to climb up and 
clamber down the slippery sidewalks of the hills of Albany, imagine 
anything more disagreeable or more dangerous to the pedestrian ? 
Broken bones lurk in every rod. 

All the pleasures of winter are enhanced rather than diminished 
at Menands. It was on the Menand road that the peculiarly Al- 



1 6 A Home at Menands. 

banian pastime of " bobbing " first received an impetus, and here 
nature has provided, free to all, toboggan slides more desirable and 
less dangerous than those in the city. The canal affords the best of 
skating and a favorite place for speeding horses. Theatres, concerts, 
lectures, etc., are made convenient by return trains on the belt line at 
lo and II o'clock, and by a recent arrangement the ii 130 D. & H. 
express going north has orders to stop at Menands to let off passen- 
gers who notify the conductor to that effect. This road has adopted 
a most liberal policy, granting every reasonable request for accommo- 
dation that has been made, and no doubt, as the place grows and 
travel increases, these facilities will be still further increased. No one 
need give up acquaintance, church, society, lodge or club by remov- 
ing to Menands. 



>^ ^. <^^ 



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